Stock Market News

Market overview: US consumer confidence edges higher

1500: The Conference Board's consumer confidence survey for the month of May has printed at 83, versus 82.3 for the month before (consensus: 83).

1426: IAG is one of the top risers now on the Footsie, with Goldman Sachs writing to clients saying that they are forecasting a continued acceleration in passenger growth in the industry, "in line with an improving European economic outlook and airline capacity reactivations". In the specific case of IAG they say that the April US ISM bodes well for IAG's summer premium traffic.

1404: Analysts at Morgan Stanley have raised their target price on shares of RyanAir to 9.8 euros from 9.5 euros previously, highlighting in a note to clients that they see 42 per cent growth in earnings per share at the company next year.

1400: US home prices advanced by 0.7 per cent month-on-month in March, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The consensus estimate had been for an increase of 0.5%.

1330: Orders for US durable goods gained 0.8 per cent month-on-month in April, well ahead of the decline of 0.7 per cent forecast by economists. Core capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, slipped by 1.2 per cent, but the previous month's rise has been revised sharply higher, to 4.7 per cent.

1030: Institutional investors are bemoaning the death of the IPO market, with Lloyds' flotation of TSB perhaps being 'an IPO too far', according to analyst Michael Hewson. CMC Markets' Chief Market Analyst said there had been City complaints that last week's IPO from Saga killed the market after the company's board cut the share allocation as institutional investors lost some enthusiasm for the deal. He added: 'Unfortunately institutional investors have only themselves to blame with respect to this by assigning stupidly high valuations to some of the earlier IPO's seen come out of the blocks earlier this year. Of the IPO's launched earlier this year only Poundland remains above its float price, while the remainder are all currently underwater.'

0953: Stock in AstraZeneca is at the bottom of the pile after being downgraded by analysts at Societe Generale. BG Group has been downgraded by analysts at Kepler Cheuvreux to 'reduce' from 'hold'.

0930: UK mortgage approvals rose by 42,173 in April, following the previous month's 45,045 (revised lower from a preliminary print of 45,933).

0925: SABMiller is trading lower this morning after analysts at Investec downgraded their rating from 'hold' to 'sell', saying that the stock's valuation is 'now too demanding, despite new cost savings'. The broker said the drinks company's annual results released last week revealed EPS below expectations due to more adverse FX than it had anticipated.

0825: Stocks have started the day slightly higher, with shares in InterContinental Hotels and Royal Mail pacing gains. The Sunday Times reported that the former has turned down a 6bn pound takeover offer from an unnamed investment fund. Royal Mail was added to JP Morgan's analyst focus list. Significantly, following this weekend's elections in Ukraine Russia's Foreign Minister indicated that his country respects the will of the Ukrainian people. European parliamentary election results, also out over the weekend, yielded favourable results in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, although not so in France. FTSE 100 up 23 to 6,838.

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